The dancing sea hare - Aplysia species.. Phyllorhiza punctata - Australian spotted jellyfish.. I think I know what the unknowns are now.. Sea tulips, seagrass, worm, and hydroids..
Making a video clip of this sea hare wasn't easy. This was again because of Chai's Underwater Photography Rule no. 1:Don't touch them!and Rule no. 2:Keep a distance. That way, it is less likely that I would harm them, and they me.
But this guy kept swimming into my face. So, half of the time, I had to keep avoiding him & her (considering sea hares are hermaphrodites). But when it swam away, I had to follow it carefully so that I won't lose sight of it. And to make things worse, my snorkeling mask kept leaking!
23/7/08: I managed to add some info to the clips this evening, but I suspect that handling in Windows Movie Maker and then saving them again must have compromised their quality somehow : (
I think I know what the unknowns are now In one of my earlier post, I showed the photos of three "unknowns". And it must be my knowledge of marine life improving with time :) that I think I have an idea now what they could be!
Unknown No. 1: Sea hare, I think it looks quite similar to this one.
These sea tulips look very much like the one shown in Australian Marine Life (Graham J Edgar's book). So I would think they are Pyura australis. But these didn't have stalks! In fact they were fused into one together with the wireweed (Amphibolis species). Anyway, the arrow - that's where something just popped out that made me jump!
WORMS! They never fail to give me the creeps. Marine or not. And I was so happy that I have stuck to Chai's Rule for Beachcombing No. 1 : Never touch anything with your bare hands. At all.
And I don't like the way they wiggle :(
But well, this small of clump of sea tulips and seagrass is home to some hydroids too. How amazing that you can find several taxonomic groups co-existing in a clump.
I wasn't so sure about it initially. But after looking up a few books, I think the red arrow points to a bunch of hydroids. The black one points to some seaweed or algae. Hydroids are animals. In fact the feather-like structure is a colony of many tiny polyps. As typical of cnidarians, these guys sting. Their more famous hydrozoan relatives that are also colonies (not single animals) - the blue bottle (Physalis physalis) and By the wind sailor (Velella velella).
Another shot of them. Both were attached to the stalk of a wireweed - again! What a wonderful seagrass it is, providing a surface to live on for other animals and plants.
The first 4 photos were taken at South Beach, Freo; the last two, South Cottesloe beach.
I have to admit when I go beachcombing or snorkeling, I usually prefer to photograph animals or plants that are rare, exotic, weird, colorful, big, funny, extraordinarily ugly, handicraft-like, dangerous, poisonous, or even not looking like living things, etc. I hardly photograph the ordinary ones, and if I do, I would usually just keep them for record, not for my little blog.
Yeah, what about the mundane ones? They certainly make up part of the ecosystem. And the mundane ones have stories to tell too. I can almost imagine them saying this into my face: Hey, we are marine life too, you know!
Another surprise when I was beachcombing on South Beach, Freo, was finding a compound ascidian, which is basically many sea squirts joining and living together as a chunk. And what I saw could be Botrylloides sp (?)
Each of the small yellow bits is actually an individual animal, called a zooid. Zooids of Botrylloides sp are arranged in double rows.
It just looks like something you expect to see in a handicraft shop!
Like any sea squirts, these guys need an inlet for water and an outlet too. The little pores in each yellow bit (zooids) are possibly the inlets. All zooids of a compound ascidian apparently share a large communal outlet, but couldn't find it.
Sea stars on South Beach, Fremantle I went to South Beach, Freo (Fremantle) this arvo. I didn't expect to see much at first, considering it is near WA's largest port. But I got a few nice surprises - one of which being finding three large sea stars (~ 15 cm or more across) on the shore. I was so excited as I haven't seen one for a long time.
Images 1, 2, 3
(1) This is the first one I saw. It was upside down. (I found the broken tip and put it on the body.) (2) Close-up of the broken tip. I love the colours. (3) I turned it and took another shot.
Images 4, 5 (4) The exposed end on the broken tip. The orange color reminded me of the yolk of salted egg. (5) The exposed end on the broken arm. Look at the tiny tube feet! Seriously, don't they look like some rice biscuit sticks with orange-flavor filling?
Images 6, 7, 8 Close-ups of the upper side of the sea star
Images 9, 10 This is the second sea star I found.
Images 11, 12, 13 Close-ups of its arms
I think this is Archaster angulata - it looks very similar to the photo in Australian Marine Life by Tassie scientist Graham J Edgar, who works for UTAS. And similar to some photos I found on the net, too.
Anyway, the most striking thing about this sea star is that they make out one "on" one during the breeding season! The two known Archaster species sea stars are believed to be the only ones that do it one-"on"-one.
The male simply goes and sits on the female and as soon as the female spawns, the male will release its sperm. (They seem to have better control than many : ) ) Apparently, other sea stars just come together in a big party and spawn together, hoping that there will be some successful fertilization. Having some body contact is nicer I think.
